Last year in Eskimo Point, the 5 polar bear tags for the settlement were distributed to 5 hunters through the "picking out of the hat" method. All the hunters' names were written on small pieces of paper and put into a box, then 5 names were picked out at random, representing the polar bear hunters for the season. That system seemed to be o.k. at first, but after a few months when still no bears had been shot, it was realized that some of the tag holders were not especially eager to go 'hunting bears and at least one of them was scared of bears." So the system had to be changed.

Gary Nicol leaves Churchill and Ron Milligan arrives. Eskimo Point distributes 5 polar bear tags to hunters in the community. Through letters to the editor, Inuit of the Kivalliq region describe their experiences adjusting to a changing world. The newest addition to the Arviat archives is the November 1972 issue of the Keewatin Echo. It's available for readers to download and view.

Something to think about ...

People everywhere are confronted with worries about their life and the environment. Often people worry about things that don't even exist or, things that never will happen. Worry gets the best of people who do nothing but think, think and think about things that seem to be going against them. Sometimes this can lead to resentment towards other people and doing things to hurt them in order to, somehow, appease the worry or get people's attention.

Long ago, in the winter, when Inuit didn't know anything about Christmas, they used to call it the Great Plain Moon. When the moon was full and bright, Inuit used to put a shade over their ice window from the outside. Since they had no cloth they used somthing else for a shade. When everyone fell asleep, someone would take the shade away. it was hard to know who did it.

A seminar on the standardization of Inuktitut syllabics leads to a number of recommendations, including new syllabic characters. The Army comes to Eskimo Point for Exercise Northern Rambler. Rankin Inlet gets a new school, Arviat and Baker Lake describe some of their economic development activities, Inuit children visit the south and Alice Suluk shares some delightful traditional Inuit tales.

Kivalliq residents concerned about their children going to school in Frobisher Bay visit to learn first-hand what it's really like to live there. Ski-doo races take place in Repulse Bay. Whale Cove celebrates Easter games and ski-doo races. What is family planning? Know your months -- Embryoed Caribou Season and Shedding Season. Paddy Gardiner visits Eskimo Point to teach a communications course and Bruce Taylor from CBC Churchill comes to instruct residents on how to make a good radio program. Arviat ladies learn to sew knit-wear material and a collection of letters to the Editor encourage Inuit to Write and to be proud of their culture. Polar Bear quotas and sport hunting are an issue of concern in Coral Harbour and residents of the Keewatin are encouraged to report oil spills and contamination on the land.

The Keewatin Echo newspaper was published monthly by the Keewatin Region Adult Education Staff of the Government of the Northwest Territories. This particular issue was published in November 1971 in Eskimo Point, N.W.T. (now Arviat, Nunavut) and was edited by Mark Kalluak of Arviat. This issue was digitized by the Nunavut Arctic College Learning Materials Centre in Arviat to ensure the stories, writings, history and content contained within will be archived, preserved and accessible for future generations to discover. We hope you, and our fellow residents in Arviat enjoy reading it